I'll never forget the time I took my first piano class. It was at the Community College of Philadelphia 1984. It was a group class with 20 or so electronic keyboards arranged around the room. We each received a class text book titled "Class Piano." No shocker there.
I opened up the book and saw that I would be learning how to read music and play triads. I also saw that I would be playing very simple classical pieces. Now, while I enjoyed this and learned how to play these easy pieces, it just didn't do it for me. It was because as I soon as I put the book down, I was dumbfounded! I didn't know what to do on the piano without the book!
I soon realized that I didn't want to become a professional note reader. No. I wanted to be able to sit down at the piano, place my fingers on a chord that called to me, and just play. I wanted to express myself at the piano in the same way visual artists are able to take pen and paper and artfully color their inner worlds. Why was this so difficult to do?
It was at this time that I started to look for new ways to play. I came upon a book that taught a modern chord position which could be used right away to make music with. Amazing! No note reading. Just chords. And once I learned a few chords, I was able to create my own music. This open position chord structure allowed me to improvise music quite easily.
Another book influenced me as well. This one showed how to play chord progressions using 4, 8 and 16 bar phrases. With this chord charting technique, I could see that I could create my own pieces. It taught me the principles of repetition and contrast - the cornerstones to musical composition.
A few chords arranged for 8-bars is repeated 2 or more times giving you what is called an "A" section of music. Another few bars of different chord changes and the "B" section is produced. And all of this was taught within a very slim volume. Maybe 46 pages or so.
After a few years of working with this material, I synthesized both methods so beginning piano players can take a modern sounding chord and work with it within a set framework. The result is a method where students are able to improvise their own music right away!
Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!
Piano Books to Help You Become the Player You Want to Be
If you would like to become a real pianist, a variety of good piano books is really needed. You can spend as a ton of time to practicing scales, but it's just not everything you need to do.. If it's all you do is practice your scales, you most likely get bored with playing piano, and when you become bored, your playing will suffer. By taking advantage of piano books with songs that you like, you can keep playing fun and interesting, and that is the highest priority on the list that there is, hands down, to to push you to become a really best of the best musician.
There are a lot of good piano books around, no matter what kind of music you are into. From grassroots, to jazz, to blues to rock,, and everywhere in between, there are manuals on piano available for every genre. Myself, I like to shake it up a lot. I buy piano books for all of the great classical pieces, and then learn to play the music, but sometimes i want a change. It is good to be able to play the songs that your friends know. I mean, why be an entertainer if you can not entertain? So, I ensure that I purchase piano books covering all of the top hits of today so that I'll have the ability take requests whenever I happen to become entertaining. I even own piano books filled with songs that i don't even much care for.
Of course, once you've gone through enough piano books and studied a ton of songs, you beging to understand you really don't need the sheet music for everything anymore. After years of diligent and daily study, the special minute is about to occur for you, I know it happened for me after i was able to play anything that your heart desires with little effort. The music will just come to you you can hear a song once, and can almost get the groove of the song in your head first try. Oh, If you want to play it note for note exactly as it has been arranged originally, you will still probably need the piano books,but if you just wantto be able to come up with a version of the given song that will have everyone excited to hear that song when the time calls for it, you'll most likely need nothing but your own wits, and your nimble little fingers. After that occurs you can finally rid yourself of all those piano books for good.
If you want to find more information about piano playing and music lessons take the time to visit our website at Music Tips
There are a lot of good piano books around, no matter what kind of music you are into. From grassroots, to jazz, to blues to rock,, and everywhere in between, there are manuals on piano available for every genre. Myself, I like to shake it up a lot. I buy piano books for all of the great classical pieces, and then learn to play the music, but sometimes i want a change. It is good to be able to play the songs that your friends know. I mean, why be an entertainer if you can not entertain? So, I ensure that I purchase piano books covering all of the top hits of today so that I'll have the ability take requests whenever I happen to become entertaining. I even own piano books filled with songs that i don't even much care for.
Of course, once you've gone through enough piano books and studied a ton of songs, you beging to understand you really don't need the sheet music for everything anymore. After years of diligent and daily study, the special minute is about to occur for you, I know it happened for me after i was able to play anything that your heart desires with little effort. The music will just come to you you can hear a song once, and can almost get the groove of the song in your head first try. Oh, If you want to play it note for note exactly as it has been arranged originally, you will still probably need the piano books,but if you just wantto be able to come up with a version of the given song that will have everyone excited to hear that song when the time calls for it, you'll most likely need nothing but your own wits, and your nimble little fingers. After that occurs you can finally rid yourself of all those piano books for good.
If you want to find more information about piano playing and music lessons take the time to visit our website at Music Tips
My Piano Room
My piano room
Excitements always fill my chest as I walk through the glass folding doors with white wooden frames is my piano room. It is not big in size, just like the size of a garage that fits two cars. It is rectangular in shape surrounded by four walls that are light green with bumpy textures. The ceiling of my piano room is reachable if I make a casual leap. There are three windows in the piano room. Two of them tall and skinny on the chimney side of the wall and behind the piano is the big window taking out almost the entire wall space giving a view to my back yard. On a sunny day the windows allow the sunlight to brighten up the entire room splattering shadows of the dogwood's shaky branch and leaves on the wooden floor. Near the entrance is a dark grey sofa. It is somewhat modern and square looking with four short dark wooden legs and the front two legs anchoring the carpet in front of it. It is a mid-size sofa. Four guests could barely fit on it. This is the room which I fancy the most in the entire house. This is where most of my joys were found and numerous precious memories were stored.
The attention grabber is often times not the shiny black concert grand piano in front of the sofa, but the carpet under the sofa. The carpet has such a unique feel to its texture and look. It has countless little marshmallow-like cotton cylinders on it. They are so marshmallow-like that you could almost taste its sweetness and would want to take a bite out of it if it weren't on a carpet. On the carpet is a square shaped black wooden desk with four skinny square legs. A book as thick as a dictionary is always available for the guests on top of the table and in between two dark green scented candles, and it is full of different landscape photography taken by a Taiwanese photographer.
The fire place has a mantel made of piled up red bricks that climbs up the wall that forms the chimney which reaches all the way to the ceiling. The fire place is old and it makes the entire piano room smell like burnt wood especially during winter times when the fire place is often lit. The fire place reminds me of Christmas. Perhaps I've just seen way too many Hollywood Christmas films that whenever I look at the chimney I feel like playing "The Christmas song" by Mel Tormé for it appreciating all those warmth it had brought to this room.
The piano is the main theme of the room. It is to the far right corner placed at an angle with its back towards the sofa, and it adds a level of graceful atmosphere in this room. It is placed at the corner of the room even though it does not fit at all. I received this piano as a birthday gift on my seventeenth birthday. It is a concert grand piano with a black exterior so shiny that it is mirror like. The keys are made out of wood with snow white finish contrasting the black wooden keys in between them. The keys always appear so calm and graceful, even though they have gone through countless arpeggios and melodies.
I first saw this piano in a piano gallery in northeast Portland. In the piano gallery there were all brands of high end pianos, Steinway & sons, Böesendorfer, Mason and Hamlin. I played on every piano in the showroom like a four-year-old kid who just wants to touch everything he sees. They all sounded like expensive pianos. However, there was only one piano that I immediately felt a connection to after playing just a couple notes on it. It was the YAMAHA grand piano. The piano had a really unique echoic quality to its tone, making the pianist's playing brighter and clearer, and it is the kind of sound quality that I have always been looking for in a piano. Therefore after a radical debate with the seller about the piano's price we bought it.
My piano and I have gone through numerous memorable times together, either the good times playing all the Chopin and Mozart or the bad times playing the dull scales. Usually Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff's solo and concerto pieces are layered over one another on the piano's music stand, just because I never bother to put them back onto the book shelf after playing them, and even though the shelf, which fits perfectly in the corner, is only two steps away from the piano. The piano lid is usually raised and kept at a thirty five degree angle, making the piano's sound brighter and crisper when played. It also allows people to see its golden sound board and strings that can create amazing sensations through simply vibrating the air with their unique frequencies.
Due to the fact that my mother and I both absolutely love arts, there are several paintings in the room. The biggest painting is on the wall behind the sofa, hung at the mid-wall height. The theme of the painting is gods from a Chinese folk tale. It was imported from China which my mom paid a celestial price for. It doesn't quite fit with the western interior design of the house, but it is one of those things that after a while you kind of just get used to looking at it. The other two that hang on each side of the chimney are contemporary oil paintings by this artist who only draw pianos.
The piano room has also been known as the lady bug's room. By the time spring arrives, lady bugs start showing up in the piano room. No one knows exactly where they come from and why they only appear in the piano room, but they have become some of my most loyal music fans. Whenever I am playing the piano, my dear fans are always here to back me up. They do not criticize my playing but simply appreciate the music which I find to be quite noble. However, every once in a little while there would be an exception where one of them would stand on the staff on the score reminding me that I missed the F sharp back there. To be honest sometimes it really makes me wonder why the lady bugs suck up to me so bad, maybe it's because they don't want me to call the bug exterminators on them.
Ever since I've moved into the dorms, all I have for practicing piano is in my small studio room and the Yamaha electric keyboard. The piano room back at my house seemed luxurious by comparison. Excitements of playing in my piano room always fill my chest whenever I am heading home once in a little while. When I start playing in my piano room after a long span of separation from it, the room would feel somewhat unfamiliar to me at first. However, the unfamiliar feeling goes away as I play a piece or two on the piano.
Warming up is important before playing. After sitting down on my adjustable piano chair, I usually warn my fingers up by playing Chopin's Etudes. When I feel like my fingers are ready, I move on to playing whatever piece I am trying to mastering currently. Before I start playing, I like to close my eye and imagine if I am playing on the stage of the Carnegie hall in front of a full house. Doing such usually makes my playing more precise, because I feel the responsibility of performing professionally for my imaginary audiences. And usually what happens after I'm finish playing the song is that I all the sudden realize that I've day dreamed again. Nevertheless, it is always fun while it last, even if it seems stupid afterward.
The Piano room brings me joy, is my favorite room in the house. It is here where I can toss all the worries and pressures aside and simply indulge in playing the music that I like. No matter if I am feeling angry like a new born volcano, under pressure like a deep sea submarine, or depressed like the U.S.'s economy, playing a piece on the piano always relieves me like a shot of morphine. The stress, anger and sadness are absorbed by the piano bits by bits every time my fingers contact the keys. The Piano room is my play room and my source of endorphins.
A Review of ‘learn and Master Piano
I was one of the few fortunate people who got an advance copy of the 'Learn And Master Piano' and got have taste of it before it could hit the markets. This was compiled by Legacy Learning Systems; it was the same company that produced the highly appreciated 'Learn And Master Guitar' program. I knew the kind of work they produced and was expecting something really good; I wasn't disappointed at all this program was of really good standards. Will Barrow, the Grammy award winning piano player was hired to be the instructor of this program. Will Barrow is a well renowned pianist, other than this he is also a good singer, composer and piano teacher. I am going to give you a small look into what is included with this program and what it's potentials are:
1. DVD's – they are the most important part of the program or course. The program is inclusive of 14 DVD's, each containing of two sessions. I have gone through these lessons and I wouldn't exaggerate by saying it was absolutely amazing. Mr. Barrow teaches you each lesson with well defined step by step instructions, which you get time to practice later. The user interface of the program makes it really easy to browse through. The onscreen key board which helps highlight the keys that are being discussed are truly helpful.
2. CD's – This course comes bundled with 5 play along while you listen CD's which has over 120 tracks. The best part about it is that all the songs have 2 versions one with piano playing and in the other the piano is muted. As you start learning you can play along with the piano and slowly as you get better you can play along the track without the piano. The recordings are so good that you will get hooked on to the tracks. A professional band was hired to do the recordings.
3. Lesson Book – the lesson book is a real blessing. It is a good compilation. The book is to be used along with both the CD's and DVD's. Every song that is found on the disks is in the lesson book in music notations.
In short this excellent training program that can simply just teach how to play the piano or even help a person improvise on his or her piano playing skills. All in all this is a great guide to help you learn the piano.
Piano Software Courses Vs Piano Tuition Books (Part 2)
Piano software courses have become very popular in recent years, due in no small part to the simplicity of the idea, that being that you can learn in your own home with a virtual teacher on your computer. They are certainly more user friendly than tuition books, but what else do piano software courses offer.
The benefits of piano software courses
The immediate benefit is that you can get it so fast. If you find a piano course you want and it's located on the other side of the world in another country, no problem, you can download it to your computer in a matter of seconds.
Piano courses include audio and video files which can explain, as a piano teacher would, the things that on you own, you might not quite grasp and you can get a video file to explain things to you as many times as you wish until you understand it. It's like having your own personal piano teacher with you all the time.
There are also many audio files for you to listen to and copy. When playing a new piece of music or a new music phrase, it is very useful to listen to that phrase before playing it yourself. A big part of piano software's success is the listen and copy and also the see and copy approach to learning to play the piano, which is the closest thing to having a real teacher.
The drawbacks of piano software courses
It's difficult to find any drawback with these courses. I could say the cost, because they are more expensive than tuition books, but most, if not all of them have a money back guarantee. I suppose the only drawback is that initially you need a computer to download the course and to play the audio and video files and obviously a printer to print out your songs to play on your keyboard or piano.
Conclusion
If cost is an issue then tuition books are a good option, but you must learn the basics first. Software, in my opinion the absolute best way to go, with help from audio and video files your more likely to succeed. Whatever method you choose enjoy your piano playing. As soon as you have played your first song, you will get greedy for it. There really is nothing like sitting down at a keyboard and playing a piece of music, and its not as difficult as you might imagine.
Get learn and master piano dvds for improved your piano playing now!
Piano Lesson: Learn Piano Improvisation Through Classical Piano Music
Piano improvisation in a classical music way is an interesting complement to ordinary piano improvisational practicing. Let me suggest a way to practice!
Piano sheet music is a means and not an end. It's a way to notate what to play on the piano.
You will find a lot of interesting passages in classical piano solos. These solos can help you collect improvisational material to work on to make your piano improvisations more interesting.
How to develop your classical piano improvisational skills?
I would suggest that you begin with an easy piano solo with just one voice in your left hand and your right hand.
Learn a phrase with a few bars by heart. Play the melody over and over again changing the melody slightly without losing the classical touch.
One advantage of using classical piano music in piano improvisation exercises is that you will find many interesting melodic bass lines in counterpoint style that you can use to enhance your piano improvising.
The use of playing separate melodic lines together this way to create music is known as counterpoint. Counterpoint is a musical technique involving simultaneous sounding of separate musical lines.
Classical piano compositions are filled with wonderful licks that you can incorporate in your playing.
What can you do with a classical piano composition to improve your piano improvisational skills? Here are some examples:
1. Study different ways used to play left hand bass patterns. Play around with the patterns and try to transpose them into different keys.
2. Study interesting chords, experiment with them, change keys and positions.
3. Find chord progressions to develop.
4. Find interesting passages with unusual musical material.
5. Many more things.
As I can see it there are two different approaches to learn and work with the material mentioned before:
1. You can memorize the classical material and start a growing bank of chords, unusual melodic phrases, chords progressions and other classical piano oriented material you'll find in the piano compositions for further use in your piano improvisations.
This approach will of course develop your skills but it will also be a very time consuming and maybe overwhelming if you can't devote all your time to piano playing. Who would that be?
Another drawback is that you might lose interest in this type of piano skill development because of the stress involved in learning so many different skills and maybe the joy of playing piano will diminish.
2. Another approach is to use the before mentioned methods in a more laid back way without learning everything by heart. Let me give you an example from my childhood:
When I was quite young I used to read a lot of books on popular science from the public library. I had a bunch of books laying beside me as I lay comfortably on my bed with pillows and just having a good time.
I never felt compelled to read a book from cover to cover or to read in a certain way. The only thing I did was to read the things I was interested in, looking at pictures and enjoying what I did.
I know I learned a lot from these nice reading experiences. If I had a goal it was to feel good and I was reading out of curiosity.
I think you can do the same with the classical music you play. If you enjoy discovering the secrets in the piano sheet music the way I have mentioned, you are sowing seeds that will sooner or later manifest themselves in your playing.
The classical music will creep out in your fingers and you will feel new ideas coming up in your piano improvisational endeavors!
How Can I Learn To Understand Music & Piano Playing?
The graceful flourishes of a well-played piano masterpiece are sounds that many people would love to create. From trained professionals to child prodigies, a brilliantly
played piano can steal the show. But great lessons are costly and involve scheduling time away from your busy life. So how do you learn how to play the piano or deepen your
knowledge of the instrument?
Piano workbooks can provide a solid foundation in theory, an effective practice routine, and piano classics in one package. If you don't have the time or money for lessons,
consider buying a few piano workbooks.
The obvious advantages of piano workbooks are the ability to set your own pace and practice at your convenience. Just sit down at the bench after dinner, crack open the
book, and hear your playing improve.
The only downside is that you must develop self-motivation to flourish when studying from piano workbooks. Like any great discipline, you must develop some kind of regimen
to progress. With a teacher, you'll always have someone keeping track of how well you're doing. By studying from a workbook, you'll have to keep an eye on your own
progress.
Piano workbooks range from those that focus on the basics to those that provide a comprehensive explanation of musical theory. The best offer a good amount of theory,
exercise and musical notation. Whatever type of study you are seeking, there are certainly several piano workbooks available that suit your needs.
Some piano workbooks may be a look and listen experience. They may come with CDs that let you hear the examples listed in the book. This is great for the unsure learner who
may need more than just text to explain a concept. It's also wonderful for hearing how an exercise is supposed to be played or how a particular piece is intended to sound.
Many books give examples of practice methods. Be sure to follow their instructions so that you don't overexert your hand muscles, especially if you are a beginner or trying
advanced techniques. Warm-up your hands with simple and light playing for a little while before going into an extended run across the keyboard.
Workbooks also contain essential piano pieces that combine theory and technique into music. The pieces provided range from simple pop songs to classical standards that will
put your skills to the test. Piano workbooks often include biographical information on the composers of each piece so that you can learn the history of the instrument.
Besides simply playing, a deep understanding of the piano and pieces composed for it provides an appreciation for musical history.
Piano workbooks can offer an extensive training course to anyone willing to invest the time. Since they're often compiled by a company, they contain more information than
any one person can offer. Though a book can't make you practice, they can be a benefit to dedicated students. So when you decide to fancy yourself a pianist and set out to
master the works of Franz Liszt, consider the tutelage that piano workbooks can offer.
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